During her marriage, a spouse inhabited a home wholly owned by her husband. He passed away and the house became an asset of the estate. Subsequent to her husband’s passing, the spouse purchased a new property. She had not re-married or entered into any common law partnership. Is the spouse…
Category: Tax Issues
The pension splitting exception will allow a spouse who is 65 years of age to split income with his or her spouse or common law partner if the split income would be an excluded amount of the spouse who is 65 years old. These deeming provisions provide an opportunity to…
Today’s blog was written by guest blogger, Kathryn Walker, Associate at Fasken LLP. If you are considering retirement and old age in a warmer climate, keep in mind that in escaping the cold you will not necessarily escape Canadian taxes on death since Canadian non-residents remain subject to Canadian income…
Some losses suffered by the estate due to litigation cannot be recovered.
At a recent tax conference, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) shared its view on reporting a post-mortem loss incurred by a trust in the first year following the death of the last life interest beneficiary (the settlor in the case of an alter ego trust, and the last to die…
A recently released letter from the Department of Finance to the Joint Committee on Taxation recommends changes to enacted tax rules that would provide relief from Canadian withholding tax on estate distributions to non-resident beneficiaries of a graduated rate estate. Budget 2018 included a widened surplus stripping rule applicable to…
In Trower v. the Queen, 2019 TCC 77, the Company was privately held by the taxpayer and her spouse (49% and 51% respectively) until the taxpayer ceased to be shareholder in the Fall of 2016, pursuant to a separation agreement between the spouses. The company prepared and filed a T5…
Qualifying for support under various government disability programs in the form of cash payments or benefits often means that a recipient must have income and assets below a certain level. Without careful planning an intended inheritance may unintentionally serve to cut off a beneficiary’s government support. A Henson Trust allows…
I was reading recently that approximately $30-trillion in assets will be shifting from one generation to the next across North America in the next few decades, according to consulting firm Accenture. A couple of years ago, I wrote about gifting cash or assets during one’s lifetime as an alternative method…
With its sandy beaches, hiking trails, canoe routes, and wildlife, the Town of Wasaga Beach is a well-loved Ontario vacation destination. However, no town, however idyllic, is immune to lengthy property disputes, especially when the two people fighting are related to each other. Brother A and Brother B were at…



